Eight passengers 'waiting for train' among 21 killed in Russia's overnight strikes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said interceptors "could have saved lives".
Eight civilians waiting for trains were among the 21 people confirmed dead in Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
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Ukraine’s leader said Russia used ballistic missiles and drones in the attacks, adding that interceptors "could have saved lives".
Overnight, Kyiv and the surrounding area suffered the deadliest strikes of the year so far, with 17 deaths reported.
Eight of those reportedly occurred at the Kvitneva railway station in the Kyiv region.
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's former president, said: "Eight people were killed right on the platform - they were standing there, waiting for the morning train."
A large food warehouse was also hit in the capital last night.
Read more: Zelenskyy warns Ukraine's air defenses are overwhelmed after latest Russian attack kills 9
A separate attack in Donetsk killed three people, while another in Kharkiv killed one person. No Russian missiles were reportedly intercepted in any of last night’s attacks. Ukraine has repeatedly asked allies to provide additional US-made Patriot missile interceptors to defend against Russian missiles.
Mr Zelenskyy said: "Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today.
“It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction.”
It comes after a video emerged on Tuesday showing the moment a Russian drone hunts an unarmed Ukrainian vegetable seller through a market in broad daylight before exploding beside his van and peppering him with shrapnel.
There were no soldiers, weapons or military equipment visible. Instead, the drone operator appeared to have a clear view of a man standing beside boxes of tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and garlic.
Mr Zelenskyy said the vegetable seller, Yuri, 52, was “hunted” as part of what he described as a Russian “drone safari” against civilians in Kherson.
Anton Zemlianyi, the senior analyst at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre (USCC), told LBC: "This video provides further evidence of deliberate war crimes committed by the Russian military as part of a strategy of terrorising the civilian population. Despite the fact that the man survived and signalled that he was a civilian, the drone operator deliberately attacked him — such strikes are systematic in nature, both along the front line and in rear areas."
He added: "The Russian military makes no secret of its actions and even circulates videos of them, which underscores the deliberate nature of these crimes. At the same time, the Ukrainian Defence Forces are taking measures to counter such attacks and protect the civilian population."
As LBC has reported previously, the phrase “human safari” has increasingly been used by residents and aid workers to describe attacks in which Russian FPV drone operators are accused of deliberately pursuing people through the streets.